Genre: Historical, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
Hired by the esteemed Clearwater Detective Agency, and determined to prove themselves worthy, Jack and Will Merrit face their first case: They have eight days to unravel past events at an English public school, find a missing man and prevent his suicide.
A new life brings intriguing potentials as Jack grapples with his attraction towards men. As the assistant to the manly and assured, Jimmy Wright, he must put aside his longing for Larkin Chase and the temptations of a new stable lad, and face the weight of his new responsibility. The Merrit brothers’ future depends on it.
But when circumstances pull Jimmy away, Jack and Will are left alone to navigate a map of deceit, solve the case, and save a man’s life, even if it means risking their own.
‘A Fall from Grace’ is the second book in the Delamere Files series of romantic, Victorian gay mysteries, and follows on from ‘Finding a Way.’ The books should be read in order.
The Review
This series is compelling in part due to Jackson Marsh’s mastery of plausible late-Victorian language and setting; but also very much owing to his exploration of class distinctions that form the emotional core of this series so far.
The book opens with a chilling little report about the death of Jacques Verdier, a senior at an isolated public (i.e. private) school twelve years earlier. This death was dismissed as misadventure, but it emerges as the main plot driver, drawing the Merrit brothers and their new boss, Jimmy Wright into an adventure as far from the realities of East End London as either young man could imagine.
The first book in the series, “Finding a Way,” left me a little sad, because of Jack Merrit’s failure to fully connect with his (sort of) savior Larkin Chase. However, as the second book opens, a month or two later, we find that Jack has begun to adjust to the radically different world he now inhabits—namely the grand spaces and luxurious comforts of Delamere House—an aristocratic mansion that is the headquarters of the Delamere Agency.
Jack’s little brother, William, has adjusted easily, both to the comforts of their new position, and to the intellectual stimulation and freedom to indulge his “preciseness” to his heart’s content. Because of Will’s differences (what we today recognize as neuro-atypical), the work that Detective Jimmy Wright feels would work for him seems to fit like a glove. Jack, however, is still the Limehouse cabby, smart but not worldly; literate but not book-learned. He has just begun to feel at home in a world that was entirely alien when Jimmy and Larkin whisked him away from crime-infested Limehouse and into quiet, comfortable, safe Knightsbridge.
Now, Jackson Marsh’s London is not quite the real London, but it feels familiar to anyone who has read any other late-Victorian mysteries. Marsh’s real efforts, however, are on helping the reader understand Jack. He has begun to trust this new reality, and to genuinely appreciate the benefits of his new life. Central to his concerns is his brother, who is as interesting and appealing a character as I’ve ever encountered. Jack is less instantly appealing, but it’s clear that Jimmy Wright sees exactly who he is, and nurtures his self-confidence and belief in his own intellectual powers.
The mystery presented to the Delamere Agency is the disappearance of one of the boys who graduated from the Sinford School a dozen years ago—a classmate of the boy who died. The client is another of the schoolboys, heir to a noble title, who is apparently wracked with anxiety over the disappearance of his friend and classmate. I confess, at first it all seemed a little dry, a little unexciting, until the author began to throw in snippets of information that started to spice things up.
As the mystery unfolds, bringing Jack back into contact with Larkin Chase, a journalist focused on social justice, it is Jack’s emotions and feelings that form the constant backdrop to the narrative. As the team of detectives work to solve the puzzle set before them, Larkin carries on a quiet campaign to woo Jack, and to convince him that, even between men like them, love is possible.
The finale, as with the first book in the series, is a disturbing teaser for what might happen in book 3. It looks like Limehouse will be re-entering Jack and Will’s world. But Jack and Will have changed, and that promises still more excitement.
5 stars.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.
